"Faith Seeking Understanding"

What in the World(view)? : A Simple Tool for Analyzing Your Most Basic Convictions

by Jeff Franzwa

Preface

Pretend you are an eagle. You can soar hundreds of feet above the earth, and you have extremely sharp vision. What could you see? Perhaps you could see all of a small city at a glance, or a college campus, or an entertainment theme park. In this writing, I will try to give a brief, introductory eagle’s view of worldviews, and suggest tests for evaluating them. I will focus particularly on the Christian Theistic worldview. Other worldviews will only be mentioned briefly. An annotated list of sources and resources appears at the end for searching deeper and wider.

Truman’s dilemma

In the movie The Truman Show, Jim Carrey plays a man who has spent his entire life as the lead character of a television show about him, and he doesn’t know it. His life has been engineered in the smallest details. The town he lives in, his family, his education, the people he interacts with, the job he works, have all been scripted around him by the show’s bosses. He unwittingly lives out the life built for him, for the entertainment of the viewing audience. One day, though, a stage light falls from the “sky” to nearly hit him. Then a woman actor from the show tries to tell him about his false world, and he starts to think that perhaps it is not what he has been conditioned to think it is. Truman makes the choice to risk his security and comfort to learn and embrace the truth, and he breaks away from his manufactured world.

Truman’s life had seemed to be working pretty well. All of his needs, and most of his wants, were satisfied. The problem was that his worldview was false, and there were clues that led him to think more deeply about his world and worldview and to bravely break away from it.

Window on the World

There is a simple way to understand the term “worldview.” Transpose its root words and think of it as a “view of the world.” A worldview is a set of basic ideas we hold that describe what we think the world is really like. We interpret experiences and choose to act based on our worldview.

Worldviews ought to be thought through. One reason for this is that it is possible to be holding contradictory elements of more than one worldview at the same time, and not realize it. For example, one might hold that the universe came from nothing by purposeless chance, and also hold that it is wrong to abuse animals. However, real, objective morality from minds which just happened to exist in living beings which just happened to emerge from a universe which just happened to pop out of nothing is a strain on credulity. If we piece together major, contradictory parts of worldviews, we will at best do sloppy thinking. At worst, we may find ourselves at odds with the ultimate cause of our existence, which is probably not a smart position to maintain. Another reason to think through worldviews is that our worldview convictions form our moral choices. These choices involve life, violence, property, environmental, sexual, and other types of issues. These choices affect the welfare of others and of ourselves. Sometimes, seemingly insignificant personal choices contribute to a much larger cultural experience. So we ought to get it right. The good news is, we can get it right.

For simplicity, we will divide worldviews into three broad groups. This division is presented by Geisler and Turek in their book I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist. The first group believes that an ultimate, personal reality (God) created the universe and is distinct from it. It can be called Theistic. The second group believes that the ultimate reality is the universe. It can be called Pantheistic. The third group believes that no ultimate being exists with any relationship to the universe. It can be called Atheistic. I am mentioning these worldview types very generally, and I am not trying to make finer distinctions for this writing. There are other systems and sub-systems and blends of thought which could themselves be called worldviews, but these three can serve to illustrate very basic differences.

With the basic concept of worldviews in place, we can use three basic questions to analyze the essentials of worldviews, which we will apply to Christian Theism. The first question is: How did we get here? The second question is: What is wrong with the world (and us)? The third question is: How is the world (and us) fixed? These three simple questions can cover a lot of ground when we investigate and understand their implications.

The Way of the Cross- The Christian Theistic Worldview

We will do our worldview analysis on the Christian Theistic worldview. This is because it is my personal worldview, because I know it best, and because when the analysis technique is learned, it can be applied to any other worldview by anyone. So here we go.

Our first worldview question, again, is: How did we get here? Of course, the question doesn’t refer only to us human beings on planet Earth who can ask such questions. It means the entire vast universe and all of life on earth, including human. Another way to put it is to ask: Why does anything exist rather than nothing at all? Christian Theism teaches that “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The science of cosmology teaches that our universe began a finite time ago. Things do not cause themselves to begin to exist, so there had to be a sufficient cause for the beginning of our universe. God, as presented by Christian Theism, is the eternal, sufficient, personal, intelligent cause of the vast array of galaxies of stars, planets, and other heavenly objects. On one of these planets, orbiting one of these stars, God created a vast diversity of plant and animal life. Then, at the head of this diversity of life, God created humanity. Humanity was created particularly for relationship with God and for taking care of God’s creation.

Note: Once one has studied this worldview analysis tool, it is very important to deal with this first worldview question, applying the tests given below, before moving on to the second. Otherwise, it is easy to get bogged down in “what about this or that?” moral questions when one’s worldview does not even support real, objective morality. Let’s keep first things first.

Our second worldview question is: What is wrong with the world (and us)? Virtually everyone recognizes that the world, and especially humanity’s behavior, is not what it should be. This “shouldness” that we apply to behavior implies a real, objective standard that we ought to live up to, and points out to us that we do not always live up to it. This does not mean that all human beings agree on which moral choices are right, and which are wrong. It means simply that virtually all humans believe that some moral choices are right, and some are wrong. Christian Theism teaches that the Creator God built real morality into the universe, and especially into humanity, as a reflection of His own moral character. At the same time, God wanted humans to freely choose to conform to His moral standard. Humans have chosen to turn from God and to violate that standard. That turning and violation is called sin. Sin is both the individual wrong moral choices we make, and it is the inherited condition of human souls infected by the sin of our first parents.

Our third worldview question is: How is the world (and us) fixed? The Bible, believed by Christian Theism to be propositional revelation from God to humanity, reveals certain attributes of God. He is powerful and intelligent, as revealed in creation. He is moral, as revealed in the human tendency to morality and the Bible’s pronouncements of morality. He is just, ultimately rewarding goodness and punishing sin. He also loves His creatures and wishes to rescue them from their predicament. God carried out this rescue by sending His perfect, eternal Son to earth as Jesus Christ to die on a Roman cross to satisfy His justice and to provide forgiveness and eternal restoration of peoples’ relationship with God. Those who receive this rescue are intended to spend their present, earthly lives enjoying God, enjoying and serving each other, sharing God’s truth, resisting sin, and caring for creation. At death, their immaterial souls will migrate to heaven and the fuller awareness of the presence of God. Jesus Christ promised to return to end sin, and to establish a new heavens and a new earth for His people with their resurrected immortal bodies.

In a nutshell, then, Christian Theism teaches that God, who is eternal, powerful, intelligent, and moral, created the universe and life. Humanity, created with free will, turned from and disobeyed God, becoming sinners. God in Jesus Christ accepted the necessary just payment for sin so that humans can be restored to relationship with God.

Testing…One,Two

Once we realize that we have a worldview, it is fair to expect it to meet some challenges to its authenticity. We may have picked up our worldview from any number of sources, but just because it is part of our tradition, or it was told us in school, or we feel really good about it, is not necessarily good enough. It is fair to expect our worldview to run a gauntlet of fair challenges and to come out on the other end of the gauntlet intact, if not stronger for surviving the challenges. As before, my presentation of these tests is abbreviated, but I think valid and useful. The two tests I will use are those of coherence and correspondence. There are other tests, but coherence and correspondence, in combination, cover a lot of ground with great impact.

The Coherence Test

The coherence test asks if the major claims of a worldview, which are contained in the answers to the worldview questions, make sense in relation to one another. That is, are the major claims contradictory? A contradiction exists when two statements cannot both be true at the same time and in the same way. If I said that my lawn is both green and brown, that would not necessarily be a contradiction. Parts of it could be green, and parts of it could be brown, at the same time. (Unfortunately, this illustration is true.) If, however, I said that all of my lawn is both only green and only brown, right now, that would be a contradiction. My lawn cannot be both only green and only brown at the same time. We will now apply the test of coherence to the Christian Theistic worldview with respect to two common challenges, which are the doctrine of the Trinity, and the problem of evil.

Some opponents of orthodox Christianity protest that our belief in the Trinity is contradictory. They will say that it teaches that there are both three Gods and one God at the same time, and in the same way. Therefore, the doctrine of the Trinity is contradictory and false. This objection, however, mis-states the historic Christian doctrine of the Trinity. The teaching of the Bible, brought together and summarized in the historic creeds, states that God is one in spiritual essence, and three in persons, the persons being Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Not one God and three Gods. Not one person and three persons. One God; three persons. It is true that our human faculties cannot fully understand this part of the nature of God, but the doctrine of the Trinity passes the coherence test.

The problem of evil is a very difficult issue, partly because it can be so emotional, and because it is such a vast topic. Seminaries have entire courses devoted to this one topic. Obviously, I cannot treat it exhaustively here, but I will try to hit some of the key points, to show that the existence of evil, in relation to Christian Theism, is coherent. The usual formula of the criticism goes something like this:

If God exists, He has the power and the willingness to eliminate evil. However, evil exists. Therefore, God does not exist.

I’ll mention a few problems with the above formula and the reader can follow-up with other resources for more. First, the formula seems to recognize objective evil. But the problem with this is that evil makes the most sense in a Theistic worldview, given our three broad choices. Other worldviews often have difficulty accounting for objective evil, distinct from objective good. Critics are off to a bad start. Second, God can use evil to bring about good. The experience of evil can develop character, as it seems that we can become brave, or patient, or self-controlled through difficult experiences which require us to develop those qualities. Also, the experience of evil can cause us to develop the resolve to fight evil and to do good. Third, it might be the case that allowing a world with evil in it is the best way for God to bring about a world without evil in it. God has made human beings as free-will creatures, and not as robots. Free-will is meaningless unless wrong choices can have bad consequences, at least much of the time. Our lives on this earth, in the presence of evil, could be God’s way of “sifting” those human beings who desire to spend eternity with Him from those who do not. The fact that God has not yet finally dealt with evil does not mean that he will not do so. Fourth, and most importantly, God has done something about evil. Christian Theism teaches that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross and then to rise from the dead, so that sinners can be forgiven. Through Christ, God has destroyed the ultimate effect of sinful evil, which is to separate human beings from God forever. Many people who have come to Christian faith have had their lives turned from much evil they had done to doing more good out of loving gratitude toward God. The Bible teaches that God is patiently waiting for more people to respond to His offer of forgiveness. Then He will bring an end to the present world and evil. Do there remain questions about individual occurrences of evil that vex us as to how they fit into God’s purposes? Yes, of course. It takes much patient faith to endure frustrating and even heartbreaking evil at times. Christian Theism, however, is coherent with respect to the problem of evil.

The Correspondence Test

While the coherence test examines a worldview for disqualifying logical weaknesses, the correspondence test examines how well a worldview matches up with what can be experienced and known in the present world. The evidence I briefly mention will again be just a start, and will show how the data of several disciplines corresponds well with Christian Theism’s answers to our worldview questions. In science, the beginning of the universe, the fine tuning of the many conditions which make continued existence of the universe and life possible, the specified complexity of life with information at its core in DNA, all correspond well to Christian Theism’s answers to our first worldview question (How did we get here?). In history, the accurate transmission of the Bible’s writings regarding God the Son, Jesus Christ, including the prophetic predictions about His life, His death, and His resurrection, and their fulfillments, and what it means, corresponds well with the answers to our second and third worldview questions (What is wrong with the world (and us?) and How is the world (and us) fixed?). In philosophy, the existence of anything at all, instead of nothing, due to a sufficient creating cause corresponds to our first worldview question. The experience we all have with evil corresponds to questions two and three. Meaning, or purpose in life, and our very ability to have meaning, which requires life itself, independent thought, rationality, free will, and objective morality, corresponds to our answers to all three worldview questions.

Conclusion

As a conclusion, I want to draw a distinction between rationality and rationalism, which I learned from the writings of Francis Schaeffer. Rationality means that one can think clearly and holistically about a topic, and that knowledge and experience of it can transcend human limitations, while maintaining coherence. Christian Theism does not claim the ability to instantly answer all of the “why” questions of our existence. We should not expect it to. God is bigger than our capacity to comprehend life, so we will always have to trust certain details to Him. He more than proved His worthiness of that trust by voluntarily taking on human nature in Jesus Christ and dying on the cross to rescue us from our sin and for eternal relationship with Him. On the other hand, rationalism states that all we can know is limited to the data we can experience through our five senses. We seem to be much more, as humans, than our abilities to see, feel, hear, touch, and taste. Rationalism faces a long, hard, uphill climb to support any worldview, and irrationalism has a tough time getting started. My vote is for rationality.

I hope this tool for worldview analysis I have shared, and its application to Christian Theism, has proved helpful. At the least, it can provide an eagle’s view of the concept of worldview. At the most, it may lead to a more fulfilled, integrated life. Thank you for taking your time to read this. I count it as an honor.

Colson, Charles, and Pearcey, Nancy. “How Now Shall We Live?” This is a longer book which lays out the Christian Theistic worldview with an emphasis on cultural apologetics.

Franzwa, Jeff. “The Main Thing: Jesus the Christ, Crucified and Resurrected.” http://www.reasoningfaith.com/the-main-thing.html The author addresses most of the Christian Theistic worldview claims and their tests in this medium-length article.

Geisler, Norman. “Christian Apologetics.” This is a medium-length book. In three sections the author analyzes tests for truth, worldview options, and evidence for Christian Theism.

Geisler, Norman, and Turek, Frank. “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist.” In this longer book, the authors present a very thorough case for Christian Theism.

Godawa, Brian. “Cruel Logic.” This is a short video which works out Viktor Frankl’s notion that “ideas have consequences.” It is emotionally intense and probably not good for young children. Go to http://www.str.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pl_landing_homepage and click on “Intelligently Designed” in the videos list.

Koukl, Greg. “Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions.” Greg’s book gives practical tactical suggestions for helping people to evaluate their worldview convictions.

Samples, Ken. “A World of Difference.” This is a very thorough, very readable textbook for worldview analysis and testing. Inspired by his World War II veteran father, and framed by his own recent health crisis, this is a “must have” book for anyone wanting to understand worldviews with depth.

Schaeffer, Francis. “The God Who is There.” This short book is a classic by a man who led many Christians back into the intellectual arena. This book contrasts the Christian Theistic, Atheistic, and Pantheistic worldviews.